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The uplifters are forever running around telling blockheads they would do better if they would believe in themselves. But they already do. That is why they are blockheads.

Jack McDevitt

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Jack McDevitt
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: April 14
Author
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Would
Blockheads
Telling
Already
Forever
Running
Around
Better
Believe

More quotes by Jack McDevitt

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Solitude is only a good idea if you have the right people along to share it.
Jack McDevitt
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Truth, beaten down, may well rise again. But there's a reason it gets beaten down. Usually, we don't like it very much.
Jack McDevitt
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But, come to think of it, there was no need to wait. Time travelers don't have to wait for anybody.
Jack McDevitt
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Certain types of decisions can be safely ignored. Some issues will go away with the passage of time, others will be so slow developing that the decision-makers will depart before the results of their neglect becomes manifest. Which brings us to the environment.
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There is no justice. There are occasional acts of vengeance, or regret, but there's no real justice. In the natural scheme of things, it is not possible.
Jack McDevitt
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The real problem has to do with the inability by people to admit that a position they've held a long time might be wrong. That's all. Not that it is. Just that it might be. I don't know why it is, but we tend to fall in love with things we believe, Threaten them, and you threaten us.
Jack McDevitt
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When things go wrong, the standard management strategy is to decide who takes the blame. This should be an underling, as far down the chain as possible, but preferably with some visibility so people know management means business.
Jack McDevitt
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Man has always seen himself the peak of creation. The part of the universe that thinks. The purpose for it all. It's no doubt a gratifying view, but the universe may have a different opinion.
Jack McDevitt
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There's not much to be said for sightseeing. You go somewhere that has a waterfall. You have a beer, watch the water go over the edge, and move on. Tours are all the same. In the end, the only thing that matters is the beer.
Jack McDevitt
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Katie commented that Americans had lost the ability to enjoy themselves. We watch television, Dave said.
Jack McDevitt
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If you're paying attention to your wardrobe, Rudy believed, your mind isn't sufficiently occupied.
Jack McDevitt
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Intelligence is like pornography. I can't define it, but I know if when I see it.
Jack McDevitt
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Boundaries have no existence save on charts or in small minds. Nature does not draw lines.
Jack McDevitt
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If you want creative and successful children, resign yourself to jousting with rebels.
Jack McDevitt
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An optimist is somebody who thinks our various political and social systems, schools and churches, support groups and Boy Scout troops, jury trials and congressional committees, are on the up-and-up. That they are intended for the benefit of the members. The reality is that they are designed to keep everyone in line.
Jack McDevitt
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Idiots are not responsible for what they do. The real guilt falls on rational people who sit on their hands while morons run wild. You can opt out if you want to. Play it safe. But if you do, don't complain when the roof comes down.
Jack McDevitt
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If you're right, and nobody really cares what's out there, I wonder whether we're even worth saving.
Jack McDevitt
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Sometimes the cost of integrity is the loss of a friend.
Jack McDevitt
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Courage is perhaps our most admirable trait. The man, or woman, who possesses it is able to plunge ahead, despite dangers, despite warnings, despite hazards of all kinds, to attack the task at hand. Often, it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Jack McDevitt
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See what the world looks like from orbit. Well, in that way, at least, there was profit to be had. Nobody could look down at the planet, green and blue, with no borders in evidence and no sign of human habitation, and not get his perspective forever altered.
Jack McDevitt